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Losing my nerve/the “clutter” post

Last week, I posted to my blog on Thursday, but lost my nerve when it came to letting people know about it via social media or the email list that I usually send it to.

In the post, titled “Too Much Stuff,” I wrote about the pile of notebooks, pictures and paraphernalia that I brought home from The Canadian Jewish News after being downsized – and how it was taking up too much space in my dining room.

Even though I’ve started to tackle the “stuff” more aggressively, it’s a bit daunting to write about it online. I guess it’s like announcing that you’re quitting smoking, or going on a diet. The pressure’s on to follow through!

It’s no big secret to people who know me that I’m not exactly ruthless when it comes to getting rid of things. I do know where things are, and can locate old articles and other items pretty quickly, most of the time.

On occasion, I watch Hoarders or Clean Sweep – reality television shows about people with serious clutter problems – and I’m reassured that my own stuff is manageable, if somewhat unsightly at times.

I mentioned to a few people over the weekend that I couldn’t bring myself to post a link to my blog last Thursday, and they were unanimously encouraging, reminding me how many people deal with the same issue, and telling me they’d be interested in reading what I wrote.

A couple of lessons/reminders for me from this experience:

1. I didn’t feel good about not posting the link to my blog. Even though I’m not accountable to anyone but myself, it’s important to me to follow through when I say I’m going to do something.

2. Sometimes I need to go beyond my comfort zone. Not only do people grow by stretching themselves that way, it can and often does lead to good things.

PS – No posts on Thursday or Friday this week. Will be back on Sunday.

Since I, too, was downsized from the CJN, I have been trying to keep my promise to myself to throw out at least one to two garbage bags a week of unnecessary “stuff” that has accumulated in our house over the past 25 years. Of course our adult children, who no longer live at home, have used our house as a storage unit for their excess “stuff” too. Needless to say this is a big project and it will take a looooooong time to complete this task. But I shall not quit until it’s done!!!!